Term Project
This project is intended to be centered on you and your financial realities, and to provide you with a road map forward financially speaking. Keep in mind:
There are no singular, absolute “right or wrong” answers. This doesn’t mean there aren’t answers that are incorrect (being wrong about the concept), but if you’ve applied logic, you’ll be fine.
I appreciate the desire for keeping particular things private, so please alter/hide anything that you don’t want to appear.
Along those lines, I HIGHLY encourage you to use a “throw-away” email account when working through this, as you will likely get emails you really don’t want/need as a result (email accounts are free, so you might make a new one just for this class),
and try not to give out your phone number. Sometimes this requires a bit more time in terms of getting quotes, so adjust accordingly.
There is no portion of this assignment that you can “opt out” of. If you don’t drive, for example, get auto quotes for a friend or relative. Or, if you don’t have credit, you still need to do a credit check on yourself and discuss what you found, and how you’ll eventually establish it.
Each section should start on a new page, with the write-up followed by supporting
evidence (screen shots of insurance quotes; investment options; MLS listings, etc.)
1) Financial Goals
a) Create a short; middle; long range goal.
b) Make the short term goal SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and
time-bound) with an action statement as to how you’ll achieve it. (This doesn’t need
to be long or complicated, for example: At the end of three months I will have $1200
for a new couch by saving $100 per week.)
2) Career section including:
a) Resume
b) Thank you letter
c) Cover letter
Go to the following sites to check your aptitude (it doesn’t take long) and then go to the
BLS site to get answers to questions for your writeup. Aptitude test:
https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Skills/skills-matcher.aspx
https://www.123test.com/career-test/
Occupation finder from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics gives you information on
careers:
Term Project
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/occupation-finder.htm
d) One page write-up; identify three careers that you may be interested in, consider:
i) What is the education requirement,
ii) growth rate (job outlook),
iii) pay,
iv) work environment,
v) related jobs,
vi) how does this align with your aptitude/interest
3) Credit
a) Find out what’s on your credit report (you may be surprised!). I recommend
annualcreditreport.com but Credit Karma, Wallet Hub, or others are fine.
b) Reflection statement: best and worst credit decision, what are you going to do to
improve your score (I do NOT need/want to know your score!!), how do you use
your credit differently now? (Minimum half page writeup)
4) Housing choice
a) Find four houses, include the MLS listings (screen shot of the first page); two of the
residences need to be within 40 miles of Sacramento, and at least one out of state.
Use $350,000 as a maximum price as most will be looking for a starter home, (no,
this is NOT your “dream home” it’s a starter home).
b) Which would you choose and why would you choose it over the others? What would
it take to get in (assuming FHA financing with 3.5% down) and what would be the
anticipated monthly expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA/if any) realtor.com is
a very useful site for this.
5) Budget
a) List of fixed expenses and how often they’re due, as well as variable expenses and
approximations.
i) Which monthly method would you use? 50/30/20; Zero Sum Budget; Backwards
Budget; etc. Create your budget.
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b) OR a spending diary
Two week spending diary if you aren’t living on your own, or if you prefer (but this
needs to be DETAILED), include a half page write-up of your impressions of your
spending patterns upon reflection.
6) Investments (Minimum half page write-up)
a) Risk tolerance (include a screenshot of the results of an online assessment I’ve
included two below, or find a different one)
i) http://pfp.missouri.edu/research_IRTA.html
ii) https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsInvQuestionnaire
Pick a minimum of three specific mutual funds (include a one page print up of each
fund from Morningstar, or another source) and how you would invest a hypothetical
$10,000 into those three accounts (i.e. $4000/4000/2000 or $6000/2000/2000). A
good tool for finding the mutual funds to fit your criteria is through
Morningstar.com although there are other “Fund Screener” tools out there as well.
The “Basic Fund Screener” is found on the right side of the Morningstar home page.
https://www.morningstar.com
7) Auto insurance (Minimum half page write-up)
a) Screen shots of quotes from three providers (None from Progressive, not only will it
not count as one of the three, I’ll just give you a zero for this portion….Progressive is
an evil company!!!) Make sure the LEVELS of coverage you’re getting quotes for is
clearly visible. If you don’t have car insurance, compare insurance for someone else
(parents, roommate, etc.)
b) In your write up answer these questions:
What are your current levels of coverage?
How much coverage should you carry?
Why should/do you carry those levels?
8) Home or renters insurance (brief write-up, less than half page)
a) Screen shots of quotes from three providers
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b) Which features are important to you in a policy?
9) Health insurance (Minimum half page write-up)
a) Screen shots of quotes from three providers
b) Which features are important to you in a policy?
c) What is the annual cost to use the coverage (total of premiums, plus
deductible or co-pay)?
10) Post assessment (One page)
a) What did you learn about yourself and your finances?
b) What have you done different (if anything) since starting this class? (changes in
saving/spending, credit, insurance, financial goals)
c) How do you feel about the chances of purchasing a home? (more/less likely; time
frame; locality)
d) Do you feel that retirement is something that you’ll be able to financially prepare
for? (Why/Why not)
e) What are your next TWO changes you’ll make in your finances?
This paper is to be done in a document with a .doc .docx or .rtf extension (Do
NOT use Google docs!)
Each section should be started on a new page
One-inch margins, 12-point font, 1.5 line spacing. Make sure it’s in order, easy
to read, and well laid out (get help with formatting at the lab if necessary).
Purchase answer to see full
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